Fruit seller, 57, offers eye for sale to help deal with his informal debt
The story of a 57-year-old Thai fruit seller in Bangkok, who has offered to donate one of his eyes in order to deal with his debt, has gone viral on the internet.
Facebook Page “Panda Lab Doctor” on Friday posted a picture of a man selling fruit, and a placard placed in front of him with the message: “Urgent: an eye for sale”.
Accompanying the image on the FB post is a caption that reads “Feeling sorry for him. Seeing him selling fruit at [Bangkok’s] Bangbon district and ready to sell one of his eyes too.”
Later, local media reached out to him for an interview and reported that the fruiterer, 57, was selling his eye as he needed money to repay his informal debt.
He reiterated that his eye was really for sale and that he did not make up a story for public sympathy.
The man also said that he had loaned some money for an investment, but it did not succeed.
Sale of organs illegal
Trade in organs is illegal in Thailand, and several laws and regulations have been passed to prevent such acts.
For instance, a doctor performing a surgery on a healthy person would be violating articles 295 and 297 of the Penal Code, both concerning the act of mayhem, and other human trafficking laws.
Also, the Thai Red Cross Society’s regulations prohibit the selling of organs, with only donations from relatives being allowed.
Doctors involved in organ trade would also be seriously in breach of medical ethics.
Informal debt problem
The fruiterer is amongst over 100,000 people trapped in debt after borrowing money from loan sharks at high rates of interest, as per information from the government.
Payong Srivanich, the president of the Thai Banks Association, earlier projected that the value of informal debt nationwide could total around 3.97 trillion baht.
The current administration aims to tackle the matter by placing the issue on the national agenda, together with launching a debt relief programme.
The initiative received a total of 149,833 applications in the past three months, with a total debt of 11.09 billion baht.
